To tell a multi-faceted and intense period like the second post-war period through music, we inevitably had to simplify the story. Renato Carosone is often used as a watershed between the ancient and the modern: he is considered the artist who paved the way for international music in Italy. But investigating the music of that era, the situation becomes more complex: in Italy for many years rhythms and music from the rest of the world have been mixing and for some time Italian music has influenced artists from other continents. What really characterizes the 1950’s is the revolution in music distribution, which travels simultaneously through multiple media:
- The radio: RAI was born in Italy in 1949 (the acronym at the time stood for Radio Audizioni Italiane). The first Sanremo Festival was broadcast from its frequencies in 1951, an important springboard for many Italian authors and performers
- Television: the first broadcast of the Italian national television service was on January 3, 1954 (again RAI, which became Italian Radiotelevision), where ample space was given to musical programs. The advertising is conveyed through the “Carosello” format, which has in the jingles one of its fundamental components and sometimes sees the participation of the singers themselves as testimonials
- Cinema: these are the years of the first “musicarelli”, films that had a famous young singer as protagonist, with light plots and summer settings. The peculiarity of these feature films was in the soundtrack, consisting of songs by the artist (one of which gave the title to the film). It was a commercial operation, which brought new generations closer to cinemas and increased the sales of record companies
- The records: since 1948 the vinyl with a warmer and more natural sound replaced the shellac records and become the undisputed protagonists in the homes of music lovers
Renato Carosone is part of a wider movement, which was influenced by him and which influenced him a lot, to which we try to give space in the show of Los Carosones. To restore a complete image of Italian music at the time of the Dolce Vita, we decided to also play the arrangements of Fred Buscaglione, Marino Marini, Domenico Modugno and all the artists of that fantastic period who entered history.